Automatic self playing and teaching musical instrument.



' PATENTED NOV. 13, 1906.

E. E. BARAKAT. AUTOMATIC SELF PLAYING AND TEACHING MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

APPLICATION FILED MAB-.5 1906. v

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

W/TNESSE, W.

Altomey rm: NORRIS PETERS ca.. WASHINGTON, 01c.

PATENTED NOV. 13, 1906. B. E. BARAKAT. AUTOMATIC SELF PLAYING ANDTEACHING MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 5, 1906.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

L a bc'dle f g lNVE/VTOR B y l wow/p04 Azzorney WITNESSES.-

UNITED STAiILIJiS PATENT OFFICE.

ELIAS E. BARAKAT, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 13, 1906.

Application filed March 5, 1906- Serial NO. 304,235.

To all whom, it may. concern:

Be it known that I, ELIAS E. BARAKAT, a subject of the Sultanof Turkey,residing at Washington, District of Columbia, have invented certain newand useful Improvements in Automatic Self Playing and Teaching Muwritten or a printed record and the same type can be used over and overagain for different compositions.

My invention is educational as well as en tertaining and is adapted alsoto be of great assistance to composers. Any and every tune can be set upand played whether before known or not, and any portion of a tune can berepeated as often as desired, as will be seen from the followingdescription, taken in connection with the accon'ipanying drawings, inwhich Figure 1 is a plan view of the instrument. Fig. 2 is a side view.Fig. 3 is an end sectional view. Fig. 4 represents a part of thekeyboard of a piano or organ or a card bearing the representation of apart of a keyboard, the keys being marked by arbitrary symbols. Fig. 5represents one of the record sheets or cards upon which the tunes arerecorded, and Figs. 6 and 7 represent the type.

The instrument comprises a frame A in the form of a rectangular boxdivided centrally by a partition a, which does not run quite to the endsof the box. Each of the compartments thus formed has guides a, on whichtwo receptacles B and Bare slidably mounted.

At the ends of the box A are journaled rollers C and D, around which arewoundcords or chains 5 I), attached to the respective ends of thereceptacles B B. The roller D is driven by gearing, there being onegeard on the roller, a gear (1, having the same number of teeth, in meshwith the gear (I, and a pair of drivinggears d d, one, as (1, havingone-sixth as many teeth as the gears d. and a and the other, d, havingone eighth as many. Either gear 61 or d, which are slidably mounted onthe shaft 01 can be placed in mesh with either gear (1 or d, the shaft61 being movable in a vertical slot (1, formed in the side of the box A,said slot being of sufficient width to permit either driving-pinion tocome into mesh with gear (1. A spring a is provided with threeappropriate recesses a to hold the shaft 01 in either position foreither driving-pinion. The end of the shaft d is provided-with a crankedhandle 6, by turning which the receptacles B B are reciprocated in thebox in opposite directions on the rollers C and D. Idle rollers C C areprovided, so as to cause the cords to exert their pull in the center ofthe line of movement of the receptacles.

Near the center of the box A is a bridge E, (see Fig. 3,) to which ispivotally attached a plate F, carrying the two tongue combs G and G. i

A rod 11 is pivoted at it (see Fig. 2) on the outside of the wall of thebox A and is connected. at its left end by a pin and slot to the plateF. At its other end said rod has a slot which passes over the end of theshaft d so that when the latter is raised or lowered to reverse thedirection of movement of the. re ceptacles B B the tongue-plate isrocked on its pivot so as to place one of the tonguecombs in positionfor playing and raise the other to an inoperative position. Thereceptacles B and B are prevented from rising by flanges e, removablysecured to the walls and partition of the box A, as clearly shown inFig, 1.

For sake of economy I make use of ordinary printers type as picks orpractical means for effecting coaction or contact with the combs orreeds forming part of the instrument.

Each-receptacle B B is adapted to contain a set or several sets oftype-compartments b, the number of which depends upon the range andlength of the musical compositions which the instrument is capable ofplaying. Said sets of compartments are preferably removable in two ormore sections from the re ceptacles and are provided with bottoms, sothat the type may be removed therewith. Blocks may be used to fill upthe receptacles when less than the full number of .sets are used, orcross-bars may he slipped into notches formed in the sides of thereceptacles to hold the filled section in place. The type K (see Fig. 6)are constructed to fit without turning in the said compartments, which Ihave shown as rectangular, but which may be of any non-circular form,the type being, of course, of suitable shape to conform thereto.

The number of teeth on the gears (Z cl d d is so chosen that onerotation of the crank will move the receptacles the length of one bar.For example, suppose the roller D is two inches in diameter or just alittle less, so that one rotation thereof moves each receptacle sixinches. If the gear (Z on said roller has forty-eight teeth, forexample, then the smaller of the driving-pinions d has six teeth, sothat one rotation of the latter or of the crank will move the receptaclethree quartersof an inch. Each type-compartment being one-eighth of aninch square, for example, then one rotation of the crank corresponds toa distance of six compartments, which is the length of one bar inthreefourths time. The other driving-pinion which has eight teeth inthis instance, is used when a composition in four-four time is to beplayed. The receptacles then move one inch for each turn of the crank,corresponding to eight compartments, which is the length of one bar infour-four or common time. If the tune can be comprised in one of thereceptacles only, the other receptacle may be left empty or used foranother tune; but if the tune is too long for one receptacle then halfof it is set up in one of the receptacles and the other half in theother re ceptacle and when the first half has been played, the handle I)is moved to the other end of the slot a, so as to reverse the direo tionof rotation of the roller D without necessitating the reversal of thedirection in which the handle is revolved. In this way no time is lostin running the receptacles back idly. Owing to the connection H betweenthe shaft of the driving-pinions and the tonguecarrying plate F, thelatter is swung on its pivot by the upward or downward movement of saidshaft in its slot, so as to place the other tonguecomb in operativeposition without any attention on the part of the operator. Thus anyportion of a composition can be repeated as often as desired, so thatthe same may be thoroughly learned or tried over, and when thereceptacles reach the ends of the box the operator has only to raise orlower the handle and to continue to turn it in the same directionwithout losing time in waiting until the whole tune is played. The rod His made slightly flexible, so that while the movement of thedrivingshaft (Z in its slot (1 is sull'icient to swing the tongue-plateF when the eight-tooth pinion is in use the movement when the sixtoothpinion is employed (which movement, of course, is slightly greater) willaccomplish the same purpose, the rod H flexing slightly after thetongue-plate has moved to its extreme position. Stops f are employed toprevent the tongue-plate F from moving too far.

The manner of recording a tune and setting it up in type is as follows:Referring to Fig. 4, it will be seen that each of the keys of thekeyboard of the piano or organ or of the pictured keyboard is indicatedby a symbol, those selected by way of illustration being the letters ofthe alphabet, numerals, and some punctuation-marks sufficient in numberto comprise three octaves and three keys. l/Vhere the keyboard of aninstrument is available, a tape, such as shown in Fig. 4:, is used, thesame being pinned above the keyboard, while where the representation ofa keyboard is used the same has the symbols printed thereon. If desired,the whole keyboard may be used, in which case capital letters andadditional numerals may be used. The musician places his fingers on thekeys of the first chord and notes down or reads oil to an assistant thesymbols with which said keys are indicated. This is repeated throughoutthe tune, the symbols of each successive chord written down being incolumns under each other. The next thing to do is to iridicate the timeof each chord, which is done by placing a numeral indicating the numberof units-for example, sixteenth or twelfth notesat the left of each lineindicating a chord.

A sheet or card like that shown in Fig. 5 is then taken, which is ruledvertically with as many columns as the notes of the keyboard which havebeen used, and said columns being marked at the beginning of each barwith the symbols corresponding to those of the keyboard. Horizontallysaid card is ruled to form as many columns as there are sixteenth orthirty-second notes in the composition, each bar in the example chosen,which is for a composition written in three-fourths or six-eighths time,containing twelve columns. Each twelfth horizontal line is drawn heavierthan the others and each second line is drawn slightly heavier than theinter mediate ones. For four-four time sixteen horizontal lines areused. The time or length of each chord is now indicated on the left ofthe card by placing a cross between the appropriate horizontal lines, asshown in Fig. 5. Every other horizontal line forms a square with thevertical lines. A cross is then marked in the compartments or onehalfsquares opposite said crosses and in the vertical columns bearing therequisite symbols. For example, the first bar of the composition chosenfor illustration is represented by crosses in the first row ofhorizontal compartments in the vertical columns marked 0, v, and 5, andthe second chord by crosses in the seventh horizontal compartment belowin the vertical columns marked 7', n, t, and 3, and so on all the waydown. For tuneshaving thirty-second notes, where more of the keyboard isused, record-sheets of greater width are used and each bar will behorizontallly ruled with twenty-four lines in three-four time andthirty-two lines for each bar in four-four time, so that thethirtysecond note becomes the unit instead of the sixteenth. Of coursethe instrument will be correspondingly larger.

The record-sheet being completed, it is placd over one of thereceptacles B or B, so that the squares coincide. Pins pointed at bothends and tapering toward the middle are then forced through the sheetwherever one of the crosses appears, dropping into the correspondingcompartment below. Accord ing to whether the cross is in the upper orlower half of the squares a white or black pin is used. As beforestated, half of the record when the tune is too long for one receptacleonly is thus transferred to one of the receptacles and the other half tothe other. Then a type, as a lower-case n, with one-half of the same cutaway, is placed in each compartment containing a pin, the pins being ofa length enabling them to be readily withdrawn, the projection or prongof the type being placed forwardly or rearwardly, according as towhether the pin is white or black. If one of the squares on the recordhad a cross-mark both in its upper and lower halves, two pins would befound in one compartment and a type with two prongs would be inserted,as a lower case n.

The manner of playing a tune thus set up has been sufficiently describedabove. One or more of the sets of compartments can be moved and retainedwith the type therein, if desired, so that a permanent record can be .ke)t.

its an alternative for a cheaper construction than the receptacles B Band the sets of compartments therein I may use three-sided boxes, likeprinters galleys, and set the type, which are similar to the lower-casei of printers type, the length thereof being twice the width, the lengthbeing that required to properly actuate the teeth of the comb usedtherein just as printers set up ordinary type. The card (like that ofFig. 5) would be placed in the galley with three of its edges turned upto form a sort of a box and the type be then set transversely on thecompartments of the card marked with a cross. Spaces or leads equal inlength to one, two, four, and eight times the length of the type and ofthe same width as the type would be provided to separate the typehorizontally, and blocks of wood or metal equal in length to the widthof the galley or, rather, to the width of the ruled portion of the cardand of widths varying from one half-square to fifteen half-squares wouldbe provided to separate the chords. When all the tune or onehalf of ithas been thus set u the end of the card can be cut oil and the ox-likeremainder removed, the type being held therein by a string, ifnecessary, whereby the tune can be maintained set up indefinitely. Asthis method is precisely like the manner of setting up printers type andforms no part of my present invention, I do not consider it necessary toillustrate it.

The instrument can obviously be constructed to be actuated by a spring,as is common in music-boxes.

Various changes and modifications in design and construction may be madewithout departing from the spirit of my invention, the scope of which isexpressed in the following claims.

What I claim. is

1. I11 an automatic music-player, the combination of a pivoted plate,two combs carried thereby, a pair of receptacles slidably mountedbeneath said combs and having compartments, means to reciprocate saidreceptacles and means to swing said plate on its pivot to bring eithercomb in operative position.

2. A music-player, comprising a pair of combs, a pivoted plate carryingsaid combs, a pair of receptacles divided into compartments, means toreciprocate said receptacles beneath said combs and connections betweensaid reciprocating means, and said plate, whereby the latter is swung onits pivot when the direction of movement of said receptacle is reversed.so that the combs are alternately placed in operative position.

3. A music-player, comprising a box or frame, parallel guidewaystherein, two receptacles slidably mounted thereon, a series ofnon-circular compartments in said receptacles, a bridge centrallylocated over said box, a plate pivoted thereon to swing in a verticalplane, two combs secured thereto, a roller journaled in each end of saidbox, a cord attached to each end of each receptacle and coiled aroundone of said rollers, a drivingshaft carrying a drivingpinion, a gear onone of said rollers, an intermediate gear in mesh with said gear, saiddrivinginion being movable so as to put it in mesh with either saidfirst-mentioned gear or said intermediate gear and yielding means tohold said pin.- ion in either position.

4. In a music-player, a pair of combs, two receptacles, and pickscontained therein which actuate said combs, means to recipro cate saidreceptacles in opposite directions and connections from said recirocating means to said combs whereby the atter are alternately placed inoperative position whenever the direction of movement of saidreceptacles is reversed.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my signature in presence of twowitnesses.

ELIAS E. BARAKAT.

Witnesses I-IowARD A. CooMBs, M. A. W001).

